On Thu, 23 Apr 1998, Eva Durant wrote:
> I admit I did not follow this thread
> closely, what I'd like to know, where the EXTRA
> jobs are coming from for these targeted
> people?
>
> Eva
Exactly the point made by Ken Clarke - the former Tory Chancellor of the
Exchequer and a Keynesian, even if on the extreme right of that position.
He pointed out that the present Chancellor - a gloomy Scotch nerd called
Brown - had produced a budget in which there was no macro-economic content
whatsoever. The only UK macro-economic tool still available was
determination of interest rates - a one club golf bag - but Brown had
given this club away to the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of
England, the membership of which includes a US citizen who is a former CIA
employee ! Far from there being any kind of Keynesian stimulation of
demand, the policies of New 'Labour' are so attractive to international
capital that the pound is rising inexorably and the result is that
exporting manufacturing industries are laying of labour. At the same time
local authorities, which could very usefully create lots of rather good
jobs in social care and environmental management, are under cash
constraints (those imposed by Clarke and endorsed by Brown, Clarke is no
angel here) and are actually reducing their employment. The subsidies
being paid to employers to take on the unemployed are quite likely to lead
to a churning of the bottom end of the labour market with no net increase
in employment whatsoever.
David Byrne
Dept of Sociology and Social Policy
University of Durham
Elvet Riverside
New Elvet
Durham DH1 3JT
0191-374-2319
0191-0374-4743 fax
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